Saturday 22^nd. March. 

Well, you got the last 3 days posts this morning after all, so has my good luck returned.

Whilst tidying up yesterday’s blog in the word processor, I decided to connect the dead phone to the computer to see if I could access the data in it as an external memory, and that somehow rebooted the phone. It was showing zero charge, and I still do not know what had drained the battery: the damn thing seems to have a life and mind of its own. Anyway it means that it will now charge with the proper charger again, and that is a big relief: until next time? So I made use of it, and processed 3 days blogs and respective photos, using it to connect my computer to the internet through paid for NZ telecom; probably should have waited, because as I write this I have 2 days unlimited free WiFi.

So again feeling better about my little world, I set off to drive to Mount Taranaki.

I had crashed for the night in a cheap motel at Foxton, and would you believe it, soon after I set off I found a near plethora of choice, that I had not last evening.

Initially there is a lot of traffic on this East Coast State Highway 1, not surprising as it connects Wellington to Auckland; not many lorries, but it feels too much like the UK with very slow tailbacks whenever 2 lanes comes down to 1: but it is not as hard driving here.

The countryside soon became a large plain of green grassy fields with the odd arable field, and looked very English in nature: lots of dairy cows.

Later it developed into rolling countryside not unsimilar to a very dry grassy Derbyshire.

Then at Wanganui I turned off State Highway 1 onto 3 and lost most of the traffic.

An hour before I was due in its vicinity, I saw Mount Taranaki: it’s going to be a big B****R to climb!

 

 

From Wanganui to Hawera the scenery became unbelievably very Cheshire and Shropshire Dairy Country, with just a few big arable fields as well. I saw a couple recently harvested with straw in trails, and would you believe it, a field of burnt stubble, just like we used to before the ban: very nostalgic.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not unsurprising then to find a café called The Fat Cow, which was a very rewarding stop for early lunch.

 

I had only stopped for a coffee, but was tempted by a chicken and chilli cake: well wouldn’t you?

 

 

It was like a fish cake, but with chicken and chilli, and excellent reviver of morale.

Whilst there I asked about the next door giant factory I had seen from a distance. It was Fonterra’s largest dairy in NZ, and they owned the café.

I Googled:-

In the heart of Taranaki, Fonterra’s Whareroa site at Hawera collects up to 14 million litres of milk a day. It produces the largest volume of dairy ingredients, from a single factory anywhere in the world.

Established in 1972, the site processes a fifth of Fonterra’s dairy production in New Zealand. It makes 428,000 tonnes of milk powder, cheese, cream, protein and lactic casein ingredients every year.
With a team of 1000, Fonterra Whareroa produces enough dairy ingredients to fill more than three Olympic-sized swimming pools each week. Every six hours a train pulls into the factory to ship five containers filled with dairy products around New Zealand and to international markets.
The site’s five powder plants produce about 200,000 tonnes of milk powder per year.
The butter plant produces 30 tonnes of butter per hour and 88,000 tonnes each year.
 

Drive on through the increasingly Shropshire like countryside, as we now have Hawthorn hedges enclosing the fields instead of barbed wire, but on closer look they are a native species: not like Hawthorn at all. Mount Taranaki growing in size rapidly.

 

I drive to Dawson Falls on the south side of the mountain, for a look and leg stretch, and at the small visitor centre find out that I am already at 900 metres above sea level, which accounts for the coolness, but it is still sunny shirt sleeve weather.

 

I take an hour’s walk through some very gnarled old trees and bush to the little Hydro Power Station, and the Waterfall.

 

 

 

The Power Plant reminds me of that at Rosenlaui near Meiringen in the Swiss Alps, but although about the same size, that was a modern replacement and turning at incredible speed, this was a more steady pace; not surprising as Rosenlaui had to generate for a whole hotel, this just for the visitor centre and a small tourist lodge, and this was the original first and oldest in NZ.

 

 

Dawson Waterfall

 

Shropshire like View

 

A Dawson Falls Traffic Island

 

 

Drive on to New Plymouth to the i-SITE to see about accommodation and info on the climb, as I intend to climb it from the north where you can get higher by car.

It would appear that I may have made a bad decision in avoiding The Tongariro Crossing at the weekend, because would you believe it, there is a Lionel Ritchie Concert on at the Racecourse tonight, and all the accommodation is booked for miles around: this is no small tourist town. I think that I may have to drive 100 km. back to find anywhere, but I stop at a motel with a vacancy sign: only because the NO part of the sign had blown it turns out. However the Old Lady Receptionist – the Owner – knew a few websites to look at, and for no reward other than a thank you, found me a room in the posh Devon Hotel not far from the waterfront and centre of town, and immediately booked me a couple of nights through Booking.com. OK it’s $200 per night breakfast extra as opposed to last nights $65, but I have paid this a couple of times before. I have a choice of a Queen Double and a Standard Double in the same room.

After booking in, I drive round town looking for a supermarket, to stock up on lunch for the the climb and next few days, and I buy a smoked fish salad and a fruit salad for this evening as I don’t want a full hotel meal after today’s lunchtime indulgence.

Sleep well, having not heard a squeak out of Lionel Ritchie, the racecourse being the inland side of town.